Stock market today: World shares climb after China announces market-boosting measures

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares advanced Wednesday after China’s central bank announced fresh measures to boost its slowing economy and stabilize financial markets.

The announcement late Wednesday pushed Hong Kong’s benchmark up 3.6%. Shares fell in Tokyo but rose in most other major markets. Oil prices advanced.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX gained 1.1% to 16,803.96 and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.6% to 7,429.36. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 7,505.18. The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.4% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2%.

The People’s Bank of China said it would cut its reserve ratio requirement by 0.5 percentage points as of Feb. 5, putting an additional 1 trillion yuan ($141 billion) into the economy. Chinese markets have languished in recent weeks, adding to concerns that investors had grown too gloomy as the country’s recovery from the pandemic-related shocks faltered.

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Also Wednesday, the vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Wang Jiangjun, called for better protections for investors and for instilling confidence in the potential for gains in the markets, which have faltered in recent months.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 3.6% to 15,899.87, helped by gains in technology companies like e-commerce giant Alibaba, which surged 5.5%.

The Shanghai Composite index recovered from early losses, climbing 1.8% to 2,820.77.

Also Wednesday, Japan reported its exports rose almost 10%, supported by strong demand for machinery, vehicles and semiconductors. For the full year, Japan’s exports grew nearly 3% in 2023 while imports fell 7%, leaving a trade deficit of 9.2 trillion yen, preliminary customs data showed, a sharp drop from the 20.3 trillion yen deficit reported the year before.

But economists are forecasting that the revival in export growth will be short-lived.

“Looking ahead, we expect export growth to slow this year as pent-up foreign demand for Japanese goods eases,” Gabriel Ng of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.8% to 36,226.48 as investors renewed speculation that the Bank of Japan is edging toward a change in its longstanding lax monetary policies, which have flooded the markets with ample cash.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.4%, to 2,469.69. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% higher to 7,519.20.

India’s Sensex lost 0.1%, while the SET in Bangkok advanced 0.2%.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 climbed to another record, gaining 0.3% to 4,864.60 as the earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies gathered pace.

The Nasdaq composite also climbed, up 0.4%. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.3%, a day after topping 38,000 for the first time.

Earnings season has kicked into gear, and more than 50 companies are scheduled to release results later this week, including Tesla and Intel.

Analysts have forecast companies in the S&P 500 will deliver weaker overall earnings per share than a year earlier, which would be the fourth such decline in the last five quarters, according to FactSet. But stocks have still rallied to records in anticipation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times this year.

Such cuts can boost prices for investments while relaxing the pressure on the economy and financial system.

Treasury yields have already eased considerably since the autumn on expectations for coming rate cuts, though critics warn traders may have gone overboard again in forecasting how many cuts will come and how soon the Fed will begin.

In other trading Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 48 cents to $74.85 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gave up 39 cents on Tuesday.

Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 38 cents to $79.93 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 147.54 Japanese yen from 148.38 yen. The euro rose to $1.0901 from $1.0855.